NCAA Schools Make Alternate Plans

Tulane football player Lyneal Strain of Van Nuys practiced with his teammates in the Louisiana Superdome on Saturday as Hurricane Katrina approached.

On Wednesday, after their second evacuation in three days, the players were safe in Dallas hotel rooms, stunned by the images they watched on television.

“Looking at the footage of New Orleans, it’s devastating,” Strain said. “I saw the pictures of the Superdome and heard about the people inside. It’s mind-boggling, to see part of the roof not even there.”

Athletes from Tulane’s football team and women’s soccer team were among some 400 students from the New Orleans university who were evacuated to Jackson, Miss., on Sunday before the storm hit.

On Tuesday, the athletes were evacuated again after the Jackson State gymnasium where they were staying lost power.

The soccer players bused to Birmingham, Ala., where they are to compete in a tournament this weekend before a scheduled trip to play in San Diego next week.

The football team, which plays its home games in the Superdome, is in Dallas for what Athletic Director Rick Dickson called the “foreseeable future.”

Tulane’s scheduled football game against Southern Mississippi on Sunday in Hattiesburg, Miss., is one of at least five college football games and numerous other athletic events postponed or canceled in the aftermath of the storm, though some teams were able to return to practice Wednesday.

The Southern Mississippi women’s volleyball team, which was scheduled to participate in a tournament at UC Irvine this weekend, notified Irvine officials Wednesday the team would not make the trip.

The most prominent college team to decide not to play is Louisiana State’s fifth-ranked football team, which postponed its home game Saturday against North Texas in part because the Baton Rouge campus is being used for hurricane-related services and its basketball arena is a triage center.

“With the law enforcement requirements and so much more important things going on and the loss of life that has occurred, this is not the time for a football game,” LSU spokesman Michael Bonnette said.

All of LSU’s players are accounted for, but many athletes had been worried about friends and family, Bonnette said.

“I just talked to some of our guys and they have been able to make contact now,” Bonnette said. “It’s started to trickle in as the day goes on that they have been able to locate people.”

Two schools affected by the hurricane, Tulane and Southern Mississippi, are members of Conference USA, which has helped coordinate the relocation of those schools’ athletes to areas near other members’ campuses.

The Tulane women’s soccer team is using Alabama Birmingham facilities, the football team is using the Southern Methodist practice site, and the Southern Mississippi football team is scheduled to travel to Memphis to prepare for its Sept. 10 game at Alabama.

The conference is also organizing a relief fund and will collect toiletries and clothing for athletes -- including requests for XXXL sizes for football players, many of whom left with few possessions.

“I thought we were just going to Jackson State for a day or two and would go back to New Orleans after the storm,” said Strain, a senior receiver who played at Venice High. “That wasn’t the situation. A lot of us brought only a day or two’s worth of clean clothes, so we were washing our clothes this afternoon. But everything will work out.”

Many of his teammates still were trying to reach loved ones, and few know what awaits them when they eventually return to New Orleans.

“This semester I was going to live in an apartment off-campus,” Strain said. “I have no clue as to what the situation with the apartment is there.”

The NCAA indicated Wednesday it would work with schools and athletes affected by the hurricane, possibly granting waivers of rules limiting benefits such as travel costs or enrollment requirements for athletes whose campuses might not be able to hold classes.

“The first priority of these schools caught in Katrina’s path is the students, staff and families who have been put in harm’s way,” NCAA President Myles Brand said in a statement.

“The NCAA will be working with conference offices to deal with reduced or lost athletics schedules, the ability of teams to host or travel for competition, and championship qualification. It is too early to say what the exact solutions will be, but the national office will work to accommodate these unique and unfortunate circumstances.”

The Tulane players, whose second game is scheduled for Sept. 17 against Mississippi State in the damaged Superdome, might find itself playing a “home” game against SMU in Dallas on Sept. 24.

“You know what, I try to take everything day by day,” Strain said. “This is our permanent home for right now.”